Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled on November 18, 2003, in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, that barring same-sex couples from civil marriage violated the state constitution.1Justia. Goodridge v. Department of Public Health The court stayed its judgment for 180 days, and on May 17, 2004, Massachusetts clerks began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. No other state had done so.
The Goodridge Decision
Seven same-sex couples brought the lawsuit after their local town clerks denied them marriage licenses. They argued that Massachusetts had no legitimate reason to shut them out of the legal protections, financial benefits, and obligations that civil marriage carries. The case reached the Supreme Judicial Court, the state’s highest appellate body.1Justia. Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall wrote the majority opinion in a 4–3 decision. The question she framed was whether Massachusetts could deny the benefits of civil marriage to two people solely because they were the same sex. The court held it could not. The marriage ban failed the rational basis test under the due process and equal protection guarantees of the Massachusetts Constitution.1Justia. Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
Why the Ban Failed
The majority grounded its reasoning in Articles 1 and 10 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, which protect individual liberty and guarantee equal treatment under the law. The right to choose a spouse, the court said, is a core part of personal autonomy. Under rational basis review, the state needed to show a reasonable connection between the exclusion and some legitimate public goal.
Massachusetts offered two justifications: promoting procreation and providing an optimal setting for raising children. Neither held up. Heterosexual couples who never intend to have children are free to marry, and same-sex couples were already raising children across the state. The restriction had no rational fit with the goals the state offered to defend it.1Justia. Goodridge v. Department of Public Health
Three justices dissented in separate opinions, arguing variously that redefining marriage belonged to the legislature and that the state’s reasoning, even if debatable, cleared the low bar of rationality. The majority prevailed by a single vote.
May 17, 2004: The First Marriages
The court did not order immediate compliance. It stayed its judgment for 180 days to let the legislature conform state law to the ruling.1Justia. Goodridge v. Department of Public Health That window closed on May 17, 2004. Municipal clerks opened early. Marcia Kadish and Tanya McCloskey of Malden married at Cambridge City Hall, becoming the first legally married same-sex couple in the United States. By the end of the day, 78 same-sex couples had married across Massachusetts, with hundreds more filing intention-to-marry paperwork.
Attempts To Reverse the Ruling
Opponents moved quickly to amend the Massachusetts Constitution. Under state law, a legislatively proposed amendment must pass in two consecutive joint sessions before it reaches the voters. In March 2004, the legislature passed an amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage and created civil unions in its place. It cleared the first vote. When the legislature reconvened in September 2005, the measure failed 157 to 39.
A second effort came through a citizen petition in 2006 and 2007. It also failed, going down 151 to 45 in June 2007. Both amendment attempts dead, Goodridge stayed the law of Massachusetts.
The 1913 Law and Out-of-State Couples
A 1913 Massachusetts statute barred couples from marrying in the state if their marriage would not be recognized in their home state. After Goodridge, Governor Mitt Romney invoked that law to block out-of-state same-sex couples from obtaining Massachusetts marriage licenses. Because virtually no other state recognized same-sex marriage at the time, the restriction had real bite. Governor Deval Patrick signed legislation repealing the 1913 law in 2008, opening Massachusetts marriages to couples from any state.
Federal Recognition Lagged for Years
Marriage under Massachusetts law did not translate into federal recognition. The Defense of Marriage Act, signed by President Clinton in 1996, defined marriage for all federal purposes as a union between one man and one woman.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 1 USC 7 – Definition of Marriage Legally married same-sex couples in Massachusetts could not file joint federal tax returns, could not claim Social Security survivor benefits on a spouse’s work record, and were treated as legal strangers for immigration, veterans’ benefits, and federal employee health insurance. A couple could be fully married under state law and simultaneously unmarried in the eyes of the federal government.
From Massachusetts to Nationwide
Massachusetts stood alone until Connecticut legalized same-sex marriage in 2008. A handful of other states followed over the next several years through court rulings or legislation, but most still had bans in place.
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Section 3 of DOMA in United States v. Windsor, holding that the provision violated the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process by singling out legally married same-sex couples for unequal treatment.3Justia. United States v. Windsor, 570 US 744 (2013) The federal government then began recognizing same-sex marriages performed in states where they were legal, and the IRS confirmed that same-sex spouses could file joint federal returns.4Internal Revenue Service. Same-Sex Marriages Now Recognized for Federal Tax Purposes
In 2015, the Court decided Obergefell v. Hodges, holding that the Fourteenth Amendment requires every state to license and recognize same-sex marriages. The majority treated the right to marry as a fundamental liberty protected by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause.5Justia. Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 US 644 (2015) What Massachusetts had done twelve years earlier became the law in all fifty states.
Congress added a statutory backstop in December 2022 with the Respect for Marriage Act. The law repealed the remnants of DOMA, requires the federal government to recognize any marriage valid where it was performed, and prohibits states from denying full faith and credit to marriages from other states based on the sex or race of the spouses.6Congress.gov. Respect for Marriage Act Federal law now defines marriage, for all federal purposes, as a union between two individuals valid under state law.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 1 USC 7 – Definition of Marriage